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A Great Way To Kick Off A Holiday Weekend: PWE From Shoebox Legends

My holiday weekend got off to a good start on Friday afternoon… Not only did my employer let us out a little early, but I got home to find a proverbial Plain White Envelope from Shoebox Legends world headquarters!

The first one had me running into the other room for my 2008 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards… This is from the 1986 TCMA All-Time Orioles set.
All-Time team sets were issued for many (but not all) of the teams in 1986. What I really find odd is that there were “All-Time Teams” for the Blue Jays and Mariners. In 1986, those teams had existed for all of nine years.

Next up, a 2006 Bowman Heritage card of Carlos Delgado.
I didn’t pick up many of these cards back when they came out… they are kind of odd looking with their simulated early-50’s look… but I had been thinking I should go back sometime and fill in my team sets. Now I’ve got a card to kick things off!

I’m going to preface this next card by saying that none of this commentary is meant to be critical, I just find it amusing…

Well, in this PWE I got a card of Cesar Puello, a “can’t miss” Mets prospect who went ahead and missed anyway. After the 2010 season, Baseball America had him ranked as the Mets #3 prospect and the #77 prospect in all of baseball.
A few weeks ago, the Mets released Puello after he spent much of the 2015 season on the DL, and much of 2014 not hitting at hitter-friendly Las Vegas.

…And again, I’m not saying any of this to be critical, I just wonder if there’s a “Shoebox Curse” in the works.

In 2012, a 19-year-old Dylan Bundy pitched two games for the Orioles, which was enough to get him in the 2013 Topps set and inserts. Unfortunately, he underwent Tommy John and missed the 2013 season, and still has not made it back to Baltimore.
On the plus side, he’s still just 22 and I needed this card.

Hunter Harvey is the son of former Angels and Marlins reliever Bryan Harvey
Like Dylan Bundy, Harvey is a former 1st round pick, missed an entire season to injury (this year), is still very young and still working his way towards Baltimore.

One of the cards I got was one I hadn’t seen yet – a 2014 “Bowman Is Back” shiny refractor-y insert of Travis d’Arnaud. Since this insert set paid homage to 1989 Bowman, I thought I’d compare it directly to a Mets catcher from that set.
For anyone who hasn’t seen one of these cards, the refractor effect is full-prism, but my scanner picks it up as being blue. These inserts are interesting in that they’re refractors but not parallels, they are based on the 1989 Bowman design but are standard size (unlike the slightly taller 1989 cards), and seem to have maintained the same border ratio, even though the cards are different sizes, which leaves a bit of extra white space on the sides.

Here is the back, which was nicely done except that they didn’t do the team-by-team statistics breakdown of the original
These cards are much nicer than I’d expected, and I’m going to have to track down more of them… Once I chase down a checklist and figure out what I need. I guess that’s the sign of a good PWE card… Needing to figure out what else you need from the set.

This 2015 Stadium Club Dwight Gooden was right at the top of my wantlist for this set.
It’s a great photo, it features an in-his-prime Doc, a still-existing Shea Stadium… What’s not to like?

We wrap up with another card from the 1960-61 A&BC Footballers set… This time with Scottish goalkeeper Frank Haffey.
Haffey has an interesting story… He played 200+ games for Celtic, but only two for Scotland in international competition. In his second game for Scotland, he was in goal for a 9-3 loss to England, a game that would stigmatize him afterwards. I saw many references to “That Day”, and also to the following joke (which would’ve been a meme if they’d had memes in the day):

“What’s the time?”
“Nearly ten past Haffey.”

OUCH.

Soon after, Haffey moved to Australia, tended goal for a team there, and started a career as a cabaret singer.

The back of the card… I’m sure you all know the “Magic Answer” being hinted at.
Easy-peasy. Everybody knows it’s Stockport County.

…Everybody with Google access, anyway. This season, Stockport is in National League North, which seems to be the bottom tier of British football.

Getting back to Mr. Haffey, Here’s a video I found of “THAT DAY”:

BTW, the lady awarding the trophy at the end of the clip is Queen Elizabeth, then in her thirties.

Once again, a fun and much appreciated PWE from Shoebox Legends! May you never experience a defeat that ends with you fleeing the country.

5 thoughts on “A Great Way To Kick Off A Holiday Weekend: PWE From Shoebox Legends”

Glad you enjoyed the cards, and glad most were on target. I’ve always thought the photograph on that Frank Haffey card makes him look like Frank enstein. I hope there’s not a Shoebox Legends curse developing!

The first time I ever saw the picture from the Gooden Stadium Club card was on a 1985 Donruss box panels card,on box bottoms. There were 4 cards. Gooden, Ron Kittle, Ryne Sandberg, and a Lou Gehrig by Perez puzzle. I cut mine out and I still have it somewhere. The really is a great photo.

I love the Gooden photo too. Pete Rose and Mickey Mantle drove the hobby in the early 80’s but Gooden was one of the first players to fuel the rookie card craze. I remember people asking and getting $1 or more for his 1985 Topps card right out of the pack.